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Life is hard! Build Life Muscles – our latest book

Devon and Karen Burke’s labour of love, Building Life Muscles is finished and out now for publication – available on Kindle and Paperback.  Hot on the heels of their first successful writing collaboration, The Calming Book of Healing Hugs: Stay connected and Rediscover the Power in a Hug it goes one step further to provide exercises and guidance that help move you closer to the person you want to be.  The person who can take on life’s challenges, keep calm and carry on!

In the same way that the physical muscles support our whole body system, which is essential for a good healthy body, internally, our life muscles support us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Thus, developing an inner strength which we can build and draw upon throughout life. This book is designed to show you how to build life muscles to enhance your personal growth, to improve resilience and build emotional stamina while staying rooted, grounded and balanced.

Emotional stamina means having the resilience and strength to deal with all the emotions that you will feel and deal with on a daily basis.  It is easy to feel overwhelmed by these emotions or bogged down with repetitive thought patterns or behaviour.  If you can build emotional stamina, you will gain the benefits of having the strength to manage daily stresses more effectively and recover more quickly from challenges and crises when they arise.  Whether you already have been through many challenging storms in life or are currently dealing with life changing events, whatever your stage in life Building Life Muscles intentionally proffers a moment and space for the learning which takes place, during these times. Enabling the opportunity for you to flourish and help progress you positively along your journey.  We can often look at others and wonder ‘how do they do it?’ or ‘how do they keep their energy up?   The exercises provided within this book help you tap into those resources displayed by others but finding them in your own your mind, body, soul and spirit whilst building those important life muscles as you go along.

Changing and developing yourself requires active participation.  If we were able to do this just by sheer will then life would be a lot easier but that would be too simple and of no real benefit. You cannot become the best version of yourself or craft your ideal self-image without willing effort.  Now, ask yourself how much time have you spent thinking about the person you would like to be?  This is an important question because the truth is, the self-image you currently portray plays a major role in your success in life, as well as your mindset, and your overall sense of well-being.

Our self-image is the personal picture or mental image we hold of ourselves. We all have self-images that have become pieced together in our minds, whether consciously or unconsciously.  It is important to examine your current self-image.  For example, if you describe yourself as an anxious person, that may be because you get nervous easily or are terrified when speaking in public.  These are normal responses and are understandable, but without examining where that has come from, that behaviour can continue to hold you back and stop you growing into who you want to be.  Holding onto that self-image can make you feel that anxiety controls you and that you have little to no power to change that.  With the knowledge that it is often difficult to alter your self-image, Building Life Muscles helps you find your way through negative self-talk and those limiting self-beliefs. 

That said, you also must want to change. You must make the choice.  Some may feel that they have accepted who they are and have no desire or see the need for change.  Again, this is ok but, without growth, without change, your life may become stagnant, and you can stop receiving the best of what life has to offer.   The desire to become better versions of ourselves, to continually elevate ourselves in some aspect of our life can lead to more fulfilment. Again, however you must actually take the necessary steps to improve. That is where crafting self is so vital. Once you have this plan in place, you no longer possess only a wish for a better version of yourself, but you’re actually working towards becoming that person.  With tips like these, surely then, that first active step is to read Building Life Muscles!